


Falling in Love

by SassyWordsmith



Category: Fangirl - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Affection, Cuddling, F/M, Fluff, Honesty, Kissing, Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-04-10
Packaged: 2020-01-10 19:05:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18414023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SassyWordsmith/pseuds/SassyWordsmith
Summary: Starts with Levi telling Cath that he is falling in love with her. In Fangirl, we never get to read Cath's response and it just skips to the next chapter. This is an alternate ending I created for that chapter, chapter 31 in which Cather and Levi continue their conversation.





	Falling in Love

“You know that I’m falling in love with you, right?" Levi asked Cath. He was laying down across the shiny turquoise love seat in his room with her in his lap, leaning back against his chest. 

Cath’s mind went blank. She hadn’t been expecting him to say that. How was she supposed to respond to a revelation like that? Wait. It was just a yes or no question.

“Oh, no, you've never said that before,” she said softly, forcing herself to maintain eye contact with him despite feeling uncomfortable. 

Levi smiled. 

"Well, it's how I feel. I stand by it." 

There was silence between them for a moment or two and then Cath spoke again. 

“You can’t just say something like that as if it doesn’t mean anything,” she said, shifting her position in his lap for an excuse to look away.

“It _does_ mean something,” Levi said, placing his thumb underneath her chin and gently tilting her head upwards so she was looking at him. “It means I really like you.”

“I really like you,” she told him, “but that’s not what you said. You said ‘love.’”

“I did,” he agreed, taking her hand and intertwining their fingers. He smiled but then frowned as she was avoiding his eyes again. “Did you not like it when I said that? Does it make you uncomfortable when I say ‘love’ instead of ‘like?’” he asked her.

Cath nodded, slowly letting her eyes travel back up to his face.

“How come?” Levi said.

“Because I don’t feel ready to say those words to you,” she whispered, “and I’m sorry. That probably wasn’t the response you were hoping for.”

Levi smiled to her surprise, making her feel slightly more relaxed.

“Sweetheart,” he said, “I would much rather you tell me the truth about how you feel rather than lie to spare my feelings. I appreciate your honesty. Because of this talk, when you do say ‘love’ for the first time it’ll be even more special. I’ll know that you genuinely feel that way and you aren’t just agreeing with me.”

Cath smiled and this time she didn’t shy away from him. This time she cupped his face in her hands and kissed him. She felt his hands on her waist as he pulled her closer to him, his chin jutting forward as he kissed her back. Gosh, she would never tire of kissing Levi. Kissing him was so much better than kissing her ex-boyfriend, Abel had been. She had never felt the same way she felt kissing Levi now when she kissed Abel. Cath wanted to keep kissing Levi and keep feeling his soft skin on her fingers but pulled back from him. She never wanted to get too caught up in the moment.

Levi didn’t seem to mind her stopping. He seemed to be quite happy, grinning and squeezing her affectionately. He leaned forward, nuzzling his nose into her neck and kissing the skin there. Cath knew he was doing this because it always tickled and made her giggle.

Abel had never been as affectionate with her as Levi was; Abel had never tried to make her laugh to the extent that Levi did either. At times Cath felt like Levi was too good to be true. With Abel, she had settled for him but with Levi it was different. Cath wanted him. He was sweet and patient with her. He waited nearly a month before kissing her because she hadn’t wanted to kiss before then. He did many favors for her even before they started dating. He had driven her to see her dad when he was at the hospital. Levi had been in the middle of a shift at work but had left early because he knew it was important. He was always there whenever Cath needed him.

And Levi liked her for her. He liked to listen to her read him her gay Simon Snow _fanfiction_. Most people outside of her internet friends thought her writing fanfiction was weird and they didn’t take it seriously. Levi, on the other hand, wanted to know what happened in her stories.

Levi liked her despite how shy and awkward she was. Despite how long it took for her to open up to him and feel comfortable around him. If perfect existed, to her Levi was the closest there was. Yet, he wanted to be with her. He was falling in love with her and when he told her that, he didn’t push for her to say it back. He understood that she wasn’t ready and that didn’t bother him.

To say the least, Levi made Cath happy and having thought about him so much, she couldn’t help smiling. She climbed out of his lap and when he asked her what was wrong, she simply shook her head to say ‘nothing’ and told him to move over. Although he was frowning and seemed to be confused, he did as she said. Still smiling, she pecked him on the lips to reaffirm that everything was ok. She leaned her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes while wrapping an arm around his waist. She felt him relax, leaning his head against hers and finding her free hand with his.

“I really like you,” he whispered, intertwining their fingers.

“I really like you,” she whispered back, squeezing his hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The first line of the story doesn't belong to me. 
> 
> Thank you for reading <3 If you liked this check out another Cath/Levi one-shot I wrote called Little Spoon.


End file.
